Free nursery education plan receives a qualified welcome

Saturday 9th March 2013, 4:00PM GMT.

Monkey Puzzle owner Caroline Blondel has welcomed the initiative to introduce 15 hours of free pre-school education a week. (Picture by Tom Tardif, 1308690)

FREE pre-school education for children aged three to five is long overdue, Guernseymums.gg co-founder Milly Dudley-Owen has said.

After it was revealed the Education Department would propose limited free pre-school education later in the year, parents, grandparents and toddler groups greeted the news enthusiastically.

Ms Dudley-Owen said the group had been waiting for the news for a long time.

‘Since we set up Guernseymums.gg four years ago, we have been talking about this. We are very keen to see it implemented and we are behind other jurisdictions in this matter.

‘Guernsey seems to have a bad habit of lagging behind in good legislation.’

View more: Nursery Education news, Nursery Schools news.

1
Castiel

March 9, 2013 at 6:45 pm

Nice to know the States have the money for this but can’t afford to give their staff a cost of living rise.

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2
Oilcan Annie

March 9, 2013 at 7:46 pm

Excellent news that pre school education will be available for all but wouldn’t it be better to make it free for children of families below a certain financial income. There are many wealthy families who can easily afford to send their children to preschool and will continue to do so whether it is free or not.
We keep hearing about empty coffers, lets not spend money where it is not needed, spend it on low income familes who really need it.

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- Burdock
  
  March 9, 2013 at 11:01 pm
  
  This is precisely what happens at the moment. There are at least two pre schools available to those on low income. As you rightly suggest let those other people who wish to send their children pay the going rate as we’ve all had to in the past.
  
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  - Rachel
    
    March 10, 2013 at 5:08 pm
    
    Burdock- Perhaps this is just an extension of what you mention above to include limited places at other preschools too?
    
    I haven’t read the whole article, perhaps someone who has could shed some light on how the places are to be allocated? ie, income, children who are not developing at the same rate of their peers in some areas etc?
    
    As for cost, if it encourages more people out into the workforce then it will largely pay for itself through taxes. If we can help children in need before little issues escalate into major ones then there are savings to be made there as well. All of this taken into account it may even end up being a profitable exercise when compared to the status quo.
    
    I’m looking forward to more information being released about this scheme.
    
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3
blogger

March 10, 2013 at 12:03 am

So its called pre-school education now, whatever happened to playschool and when will it become compulsory?
Soon it will be expected for a baby to speak fluently at birth.

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